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hi
I wanted to know if someone has experimented some other type of paper without purchasing the sheets pnp.
In practice if some other free similar material exists
i used both the coated paper version and the blue stuff, and the blue sheet works much better. i think the coated paper is lightly waxed paper and a thin coating of elmer's glue. you're supposed to print to the sheet, iron to the board, and soak in water to release the paper. If you get old paper it doesn't release so well, or the toner just likes to stick to the paper better than the board. This may also happen from too much heat, so be aware if you see it.
Peeling the blue stuff leaves a very nice coating of blue stuff on top of your toner lines, giving good edges and very little overetch even for thinner lines.. But they charge TOO MUCH FOR IT!!
things i found with either.
1) CLEAN YOUR BOARD. Use steel wool with soap embedded or add "comet" cleanser, but you want that "pink" surface or neither sheet will stick so good. PS-dry well! you can even use acetone or IPA to remove any excess moisture, then blow dry with compressed air.
If you screw up a iron-on, do this again to scrub off the toner, or use acetone to strip the toner, then scrub.
2) More heat is not always better. My first couple times I ironed at very high heat for too long. It bakes the toner into rock-hard lines that either stick to the paper (especially the coated paper one) or crack apart on the board. Then I used a professional roller that simply ran the whole board thru a hot roller. Stuck great, but I dunno the temp.
3) I found for either style, ferric chloride was a nicer etchant than the ammonium sulfate??? stuff. Much uglier and messy if you drip some on the table, but a very good etch. Use either one hot (70-80C)if you can for best results..
Supposedly you can print to "Transparency sheets" which are made of hi-temp plastic - then iron onto a PCB, but i never got it working too good. My toner did not cover the dark portions completely, so it ironed on OK but my ground planes and lines got way overetched. That was on crappy toner though..
let me know how it goes - feedback helps everybody!
I have try with many difference paper,coat paper,Transparency paper, including PNP .Finally I found that the lowest price and it worked! is standard printer paper(Plain paper 100g).
The trick is.
1)The pcb must be clean.
2)Heat PCB up with iron for a few minuts.
3)Lay out the artwork and press with iron again.
4)Leave the board cool.
5)Soak the board with artwork paper in water , rub the paper out with hand in the water stream.
Remember don't peel the paper out in the air, but only in the water.
I used Samsung 1750 Laser printer with resolution 600X1200.
I used the backing paper (the one you throw away) of self-adhesive labels. Roughen the paper slightly with abrasive kitchen sponge. Works all the time! I manage to get about 12mil resolution with it.
Press-n-Peel is good, but whe have two problems: the board should be very wheel cleaned if not some areas of the board do not fix very well. The other problem is if we put the boar to much hot, the tracks will be more tick and some cases shortcircuited.
So, for me good solution is PH4 (similar to Positiv20) but much more easy to get the board uniformely sensibilized, either without clean the board!
Press-n-Peel is good, but whe have two problems: the board should be very wheel cleaned if not some areas of the board do not fix very well. The other problem is if we put the boar to much hot, the tracks will be more tick and some cases shortcircuited.
So, for me good solution is PH4 (similar to Positiv20) but much more easy to get the board uniformely sensibilized, either without clean the board!
i use transparencies, and laserprinter
print out dubble, and lay the two transparancies on top of eachother to to get best result
for easyer handling you can stick them together wit a bit of spit (Not in the circuit area)
for exposiore i use an old flatbed scanner (box) where i placed tubes from a "face sun"
5 mins works verry well for normal photo print.
i have acheaved verry high density with this setup
My experiences with press'n'peel film have been good - I cut the film to just larger than the PCB design and stick it onto my proofsheet with "laser labels" , so they don't jam in the printer. This way I get 30 pcb's from a pack of 5 sheets.
I've also found that the faster the printer prints (pages-per-minuite) the better the transfer . -because the toner is designed to melt and bond faster?. samsung ML-1710
Before I dicovered p'n'p, I used to use the old waxed backing sheets from laser labels. They usualy print well, but can be prone to hairline cracks in the tracks if the sheet is bent after it has cooled down.
Here is an unusual way to tranfer PCB drawings to the board.
1-Feed a laser printer(at least 600x600 dpi) with a sheet of "GLOSSY PAPER" used on inkjet printers and have sure to print in the waxed side;
2-Print your layout NOT MIRRORED;
3-Cut the board a little bit higher than the size you need(+-5%) go give extra space on the boarder;
4-Heat the copper side with an iron set to cotton in circular moving;
5-Put the printed side of the paper faced to the coper side of the board and again with circular moving of the iron until you see the toner being transfered to the board;
6-Leave the board on a recipient with hot water for 5 minutes and is ready to be peelled off;
If someone want I can inform the url of this procedure, in portuguese of course.
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